Mt. Pleasant student makes his mark in art contest

Carter Mates, 6, a first-grader at Rumbaugh Elementary in Mt. Pleasant, was among the runners-up in the Edgar Snyder & Associates 'My Holiday Wish' contest. He is pictured in a photo taken in November 2012.
Kelly Vernon | Mt. Pleasant Journal

We are currently undergoing updates to our site and are working to improve your experience on all devices that you use throughout your day. If you should find a page or a story that is not working correctly, please click here.

Carter, 6, of Mt. Pleasant is a first-grader at Rumbaugh Elementary School in the borough. Out of 700 contest entrants, he was chosen as one of just four runners-up to the winner for his drawing.

“I can't believe I won,” Carter exclaimed when he received the call from first-grade teacher Stacey Hines announcing his achievement. “I did my happy dance.”

The entry's theme was based on Carter's wish that everyone have food and clean water for Christmas.

The drawing's design reflects that wish as it features a reindeer with a head and antlers in the shape and color of a silver water faucet that is pulling a colorful sleigh full of food, grains and rice. Carter's holiday wish is written in red and green letters above the illustration.

“It's a simple wish that is relevant to many here and around the world, especially in the weeks following (Superstorm) Sandy,” said Katherine E. Conlon, a spokeswoman at the law firm.

When asked about his inspiration behind his design, Carter said, “I want people not to get sick and be able to stay healthy.”

As a reward for his work, Carter received a $100 gift card to Target, a portion of which he plans to use to make a donation to Sandy victims, Conlon said.

The design reflects Carter's concern and caring for people, said his mother, Lori Mates.

“Carter has always been interested in art. He often draws pictures of animals or imaginary creatures,” Mates said. “He is currently creating a book about animals and their adaptations. He also enjoys creating things out of Legos.”

More than 700 entries from elementary schools across western Pennsylvania were considered by a panel of contest judges.

The panel included Ashley Andrykovitch of the Carnegie Museum of Art; Tamara Pavlock of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh; and Myrna Rosen of CMU and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts; as well as Kristi Schaefer and Scott Wallace, both of swz design.

Carter's artwork will be featured with the other winning entries on the backs of holiday greeting cards to be sent to the firm's approximately 4,000 clients.

“The students showed talent and creativity, but what is most impressive is that these young artists have such mature and unselfish holiday wishes,” said attorney Edgar Snyder. “You'd expect requests for game consoles, toys and puppies, yet we received wishes like peace, hope, food, and happiness.”

Hines said about half the students in her class participated in the contest.

“I noticed when (Carter) turned (the entry) in that his would stand out,” she said. “He had such a nice idea for a holiday wish.”

“He is a very compassionate little boy and was worried about kids that weren't going to get anything for Christmas,” Colette Mates said.

In addition to art, Carter said he enjoys skiing, basketball and soccer.

In addition to Carter, four other students were recognized for their holiday submissions.

Réka Götz, 9, of Marshall Elementary School in Wexford was the grand prize winner. The three other runners-up were Bryson Huwar, 8, of Clarion-Limestone Elementary in Clarion; Maggie Knisely, 10, of Claysburg-Kimmel Elementary School in Claysburg; and Emma Kraus, 10, of Paynter Elementary in Baldwin-Whitehall.

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our
Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent
via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.